The Vase
Aliyah was ten years old with a with a large, extended family. At every holiday or family life event like a marriage, birth or death, the family would come together from great distances and recount the family history over a shared meal. Life was good. It was simple. All the family members were happy and close. When everyone got together as a family group to enjoy a great feast, they’d talk about what was going on in their lives since the last get together. The family get-togethers occurred many, many times over generations of the family… so long no one knew how long they’d been going on.
After eating, Aliyah’s grandparents, uncles and cousins would relax and debate about how long the family had been getting together. They’d pour over and study the family photo albums and look for clues… how old the children and other family members were in the photos, the years and makes of the cars in the photos, and other clues. Aliyah’s mother had a stash of greeting cards from family members that had dates on them reaching back nearly 110-years. There was plenty of hearsay, personal anecdotes and tall tales about the get-togethers. However, there was one uniform clue that appeared in all of the stories: the vase. They all talked about the vase.
The family owned a magnificent vase adored by all that was so old no one knew exactly how old it was. It was tall, neatly-proportioned and stunningly ornate… painted and gilded and enameled and decorated with a broad variety of peaceful rural scenes, buildings and visions from long ago. Huge, brightly-colored peacocks, turtles, horses, fish and other colorful creatures adorned the vase in every way imaginable. Adults and children appeared in their finery on the vase engaged in all manner of fun and frolic. The sun, moon and blue skies appeared along the top of the vase; and stream, rivers and tossing oceans appeared along the bottom. Profound expressions appeared on the vase in different and sometimes ancient languages. The vase edges were finished with gold leaf.
The history of the “family vase” was as storied as that of the family itself. Everyone knew the vase. Everyone, regardless of age, remembered the vase from their youth.
It appeared in photos.
In family artwork.
In letters.
In stories.
In fact, it was rumored to have even held a great relative’s ashes long ago.
There simply was nothing else in the world like… the vase. And there the vase stood on the mantle above the fireplace… up high… majestic like some kind of familial sentinel bearing witness to countless generations of Aliyah’s family. Mother put the vase up high knowing that it would be safe there and always within everyone’s view. The vase was:
Protected
Revered
Cherished
Inviolable.
Aliyah came home from school one day and made her herself an after-school snack in the kitchen. Today, it was strawberry ice cream. While in the kitchen, Aliyah noticed a fly on the curtain over the sink and waved it off with a swing of her hand. The fly flew off the curtain, off into the living room and landed on the mantle edge over the fireplace. Using a wicker broom she’d grabbed from the pantry closet, she gently brushed the fly off the mantle. Feeling quite accomplished with her dexterity with broom, Aliyah spun quickly with the broom over her shoulder to return to the kitchen and her snack. And then… it happened.
The tip of the turning broom gently grazed the side of vase… with barely just enough force to tip it over off the mantle and tumbling onto the fieldstone hearth below. Watching with aghast terror, Aliyah witnessed seeming hundreds of shards of family history and unity projected left, right, and high into the air. Hundreds of years of family history was destroyed in one brief moment.
Aliyah was certain she’d be remembered as “the one that smashed the family vase.” Aliyah was absolutely crushed, but set about sweeping up the pieces with a dustpan… and the evil broom. Upon returning to the kitchen, she discovered that her cream was, of course, now long melted.
Aliyah sat in her room waiting for her family to discover that the vase was gone. That didn’t take long. In a demanding tone, her mother yelled up the staircase, “Aliyah, come down here!” Aliyah complied, and slowly walked down the steps.
Through a waterfall of tears, Aliyah told her mother how she’d accidentally knocked the vase off the mantle shelf. Aliyah’s mother took note of how upset she was, and asked what the vase meant to her. Aliyah told her that the vase was a tangible piece of the family’s history that bound the group together…the glue that held the family together. And now all that was over as a result of her mishap.
Aliyah’s mother was somewhat surprised at Aliyah’s perspective on the vase; Aliyah had a view of the vase such that it held some kind of magical or otherworldly quality that held the family together. It was like a family idol. Aliyah’s mother took heart with Aliyah and explained to that as Christian family, unconditional love and unity with Christ was “the glue” that kept the family together through thick and thin… not any physical object.
Aliyah’s mother was saddened that the vase was destroyed, but not nearly as saddened as she was seeing how distraught Aliyah was over it. In the end, it was really only a fancy porcelain bauble. Aliyah was immediately at peace knowing that in life she and her family were protected and bound by Christ’s love… something that can never be broken, lost or forsaken.
Are there any objects in your life… your car… your jewelry… anything in your life that you might overvalue?
Does this object hold more of your attention than it should?
In many ways, the things we own are a burden to us… a debt… a duty… an obligation. Perhaps it’s time for us declutter our home spaces and our spirits.
Do you have any “vases” that should be thrown out?
Christ offers us a simple cup of living water that never runs dry. In John 7:38, Jesus says, “Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”
It never fades, falters, rusts or breaks. And the only space needed is our heart… no mantles required.
JG